Missing Georgia boy is found dead after weeklong search

BRUNSWICK - A 6-year-old boy who vanished a week ago while playing near his trailer-park home was found slain Thursday, and the police chief said a registered sex offender and three other suspects would probably be charged with murder.

The partially concealed body of Christopher Michael Barrios was discovered by a state ranger about three miles from the youngster's home, authorities said.

Earlier this week, police arrested four people - included a convicted child molester living nearby - who told a confusing and contradictory combination of stories that suggested Christopher was abducted, killed and buried, authorities said. But repeated searches of the spots where some of the suspects claimed to have buried the body turned up nothing, investigators said.

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said it was obvious that the child had been slain, but he would not give details.

More than 300 volunteers had searched for Christopher, who lived with his father in a neighborhood of about 50 mobile homes along a narrow, U-shaped road just outside of Brunswick.

Neighbors told police that they last saw the boy on the evening of March 8, playing by himself on the swing set outside a friend's home. One of his toys, a Star Wars lightsaber, was found beside the road.

The police chief said the body was found after police expanded their search beyond a patch of woods that had been searched for two days.

George David Edenfield, a mentally slow 32-year-old man who lived with his parents across the street from the boy's grandmother, was arrested earlier this week and charged with violating his probation from a 1997 child molestation conviction, which prohibits him from contact with children. Police said he admitted playing a role in Christopher's disappearance, but they would not be more specific.

Edenfield's parents were jailed on charges of obstruction and lying to police because they first denied knowing anything about the boy's disappearance, then later said they knew he had been abducted, authorities said.

The same charges have been brought against a fourth suspect, family friend Donald Dale. Police said he told them he helped bury the boy.